Magento continues supporting partners and developers amid economic uncertainty

More than a half-year into the pandemic, the world is continuing to deal with the realities of COVID-19, while trying to restore economic activity. When COVID-19 triggered global upheaval in early March, we quickly rose to the task of finding ways to support the Magento solution partner community. Shortly after, we announced a new Adobe program, which enabled Magento Solution Partners in the Adobe Solution Partner Program to temporarily allocate their Magento specialists to work on Magento development projects and to help us accelerate our commerce product roadmap.

I’m happy to share that four months into this program, this initiative has provided our Solution Partners with significant funding to re-deploy their Magento developers with Adobe and ease the pressure to furlough or lay off their team members due to business disruptions. We’ve been able to work with over 40 percent of the Solution Partners that applied and engage developers from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions.

Magento developers in the program have been contributing to new Magento Commerce functionalities and updates to existing features, tests, documentation, bug fixes, and optimizations. The program currently has close to 10 projects under acceleration, which include extending GraphQL and Progressive Web Apps functionalities, integration between Magento and other Adobe applications (Adobe Stock and Adobe Experience Manager), and extending Magento Commerce’s B2B capabilities.

Keeping the lights on and delivering ROI for the future

The funding program has proven to be truly beneficial for the participating Solution Partners:

• Sam Cinquegrani, CEO of ObjectWave, had his company join the program right as the lockdown hit and business uncertainty was at an all-time high. ObjectWave developers who are part of the program have leveraged the experience to gain deeper knowledge of the Magento Commerce platform and improve their skills, which Sam believes in the long run will help ObjectWave deliver far superior results for their own Magento customers.
• Noah Oken-Berg, CEO of Above The Fray Design, has referred to the program as “bridge over troubled waters.” It has helped them close more Magento businesses and allowed their developers to experience the inner workings of a much larger organization with highly developed processes. In addition, the program helped Above The Fray Design retain top-performing developers who had received other job offers, as many liked being part of a major, meaningful initiative.

Magento continues to be unique in its commitment to community learning and development, and we have been pleased to see growth among the program’s participants. For instance, developers have gained knowledge and practical experience in thoroughly testing their code by working on test coverage and using the new Magento Functional Testing Framework. They have also improved their code quality, planning, and problem-solving skills through working with Magento team members, many of whom have taken on a mentor role for the first time.

Beyond easing immediate financial needs, the program has laid a foundation to deliver ROI well into the future by securing and developing a promising class of developers and the partners who employ them. As the pandemic continues to cause economic uncertainty, we’re grateful to be able to continue to evolve the program for the mutual benefit of the company, our partners, and our customers.

To learn more about how Adobe is supporting its Magento Solution Partners through the pandemic, join the “Partner Roadmap Acceleration Program Panel” during Adobe Developers Live: Commerce at 11:40 a.m. PT on September 28.